It's always nice when you can get others to make your points for you, and Rep. Howard Berman has found some help among Washington insider organizations in his election battle with fellow Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman.

Berman, the senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is competing with Sherman for the same San Fernando Valley congressional district seat this year, thanks to the state's redrawing of political maps and its new "top two" primary elections system, which allows members of the same party to advance to the general election.